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Analysts believe president-elect Donald Trump's choice of experts to focus on new FCC policies is an indication of a "lighter touch" on regulation and an environment likelier to favor large telecom deals, Reuters reports. Economist Jeff Eisenach and former Sprint (S) lobbyist Mark Jamison were appointed by Trump's transition team to lead FCC hiring and policy. Trump's picks will likely have an impact on "net neutrality," which has been supported by Alphabet's Google (GOOG, GOOGL) and Netflix (NFLX). Reference Link

Brean Capital analyst Alan Gould started Netflix with a Buy rating and $145 price target. The company has created an "unstoppable lead" in the internet TV business and is positioned to dominate the business long term, Gould tells investors in a research note. He believes Netflix over the next 15 years can attract 300M global subscribers and generate over $25 of earnings per share. The stock closed Friday up 18c to $115.21.

11/18/16

MACQ

11/18/16NO CHANGEMACQ

Netflix mentioned positively at M Science

11/18/16

WBLR

11/18/16NO CHANGEWBLROutperform

William Blair calls Netflix net-neutrality fears overblown

Shares of Netflix are down about 8% since President-elect Donald Trump won the election, in part due to growing concerns about potential changes to net-neutrality, William Blair analyst Ralph Schackart tells investors in a research note. Netflix already has paying arrangements in place with the major Internet Service Providers in the United States, and any potential reversal of net-neutrality rules by the Federal Communications Commission would likely not supersede agreements that are already established, Schackart contends. As such, the analyst believes any changes to the rule would likely be a nonevent for Netflix. He remains a long-term believer in Netflix's original content strategy, the "inevitable" shift to over-the-stop streaming, and the company's ability to grow revenue faster than content costs. Schackart's "base case" valuation methodology points to a mid-$140s stock price and his "bull case" has a stock price of $185. Netflix closed yesterday at $115.03.

11/21/16

11/21/16INITIATION

On The Fly: Top five analyst initiations

Catch up on today's top five analyst initiations with this list compiled by The Fly: 1. Netflix (NFLX) initiated with a Buy at Brean Capital. 2. Allergan (AGN) initiated with a Market Perform at William Blair. 3. Myovant Sciences (MYOV) was initiated with an Overweight at Barclays, an Outperform at JMP Securities, an Outperform at Baird, a Buy at Citi, and an Outperform at Cowen. 4. RA Pharmaceuticals (RARX) was initiated with a Buy at Jefferies, a Buy at SunTrust, and an Outperform at Credit Suisse. 5. ZTO Express (ZTO) was initiated with a Buy ratings at Citi and Goldman and an Overweight at Morgan Stanley. This list is just a portion of The Fly's analyst coverage. To see The Fly's full Street Research coverage, click here.

Credit Suisse analyst Kulbinder Garcha said that build plans noted by the firm's tech team in Japan, the firm's proprietary iPhone survey and recent announcements from Sprint (S) and T-Mobile (TMUS) all lead him to now believe that Apple's (AAPL) iPhone 7 cycle may be stronger than anticipated. Accordingly, Garcha increased his calendar year 2016 iPhone volume estimate to 215M from 208M and took his calendar year 2017 estimate up to 221M units from 217M units. Additionally, two recent surveys conducted by the firm point to a potential beneficial mix shift, as more buyers appear to be shifting toward the Plus model compared to the mix in the iPhone 6s cycle, Garcha tells investors. The analyst reiterates an Outperform rating and $150 price target on Apple shares, which closed yesterday at $111.77.

09/20/16

PIPR

09/20/16NO CHANGEPIPROverweight

Piper survey shows decline in iPhone upgrade interest

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster says his firm's survey of 403 U.S. iPhone owners suggests that interest in an iPhone 7 upgrade declined after the announcement of the device. The data contradicts "generally positive" initial demand indicators including from carriers including T-Mobile (TMUS) and Sprint (S), Munster tells investors in a research note. The analyst questions iPhone 7 demand into Apple's (AAPL) March and June quarters but remains confident in his thinking for flattish growth for iPhone 7 versus iPhone 6. Munster reiterates an Overweight rating on Apple.

10/13/16

MACQ

10/13/16NO CHANGEMACQ

DISH the 'big winner" in Sprint's spectrum value, says Macquarie

Macquarie analyst Amy Yong said Sprint's creation of of spectrum-leaseback transactions has boosted the company's liquidity position by up to $7B and finally placed an implied value to its spectrum portfolio of $117B. The analyst raised Sprint's price target to $8 from $7 but said the "big winner" is Dish (DISH) where Sprint's spectrum value at $1.85/MHz-PoP implies upside to her $66 price target and brings her valuation for DISH closer to $94 per share.

11/21/16

DBAB

11/21/16NO CHANGEDBABBuy

Deutsche says buy American Tower, Crown Castle after pullbacks

Deutsche Bank analyst Matthew Niknam recommends buying shares of American Tower (AMT) and Crown Castle (CCI) following the recent selloffs. The analyst thinks estimates have bottomed, fundamentals are "very strong" and that fears of a possible Sprint (S) and T-Mobile (TMUS) merger are overblown.

GOOGAlphabet

$769.20

8.66 (1.14%)

11/18/16

OPCO

11/18/16NO CHANGEOPCO

Public cloud infrastructure market will be $62B by 2020, says Oppenheimer

Oppenheimer analyst Timothy Horan says "the race is on" for public cloud providers to get as much of their customers' data on their respective cloud platforms as possible. The analyst believes Amazon (AMZN) Web Services, Microsoft (MSFT), and Alphabet's Google (GOOG; GOOGL) have ambitions to become the dominant OS of the cloud, and to do so these companies will aim to have integrated solutions from the infrastructure layer to services through first-party offerings and/or the development of a strong partner channel. He views AWS as the primary wholesale cloud platform and Microsoft as the enterprise platform. However, given the relative immaturity of the market and the massive $1T opportunity, all three have been successful focusing on multiple segments, Horan adds, noting that he expects the public cloud infrastructure market to be $62B by 2020.

Following the election of Donald Trump as President and the Republican sweep in D.C., large cap internet names, those with more international revenues, and China-based companies have been underperforming, noted Loop Capital analyst Blake Harper. Larger caps, such as Alphabet (GOOG), Amazon (AMZN) and Facebook (FB), could continue to see more pressure given the potential for more restrictive trade and antitrust policies, while internet companies the large majority of their revenues from the U.S. and a narrower market focus - such as Angie's List (ANGI), Care.com (CRCM), GrubHub (GRUB), Quotient (QUOT), Bankrate (RATE), LendingTree (TREE), TrueCar (TRUE) and Yelp (YELP) - should outperform in the near-term, contends Harper.

11/10/16

STFL

11/10/16UPGRADETarget $1900STFLBuy

Stifel calls Priceline a dominant franchise, upgrades to Buy

Stifel analyst Scott Devitt last night upgraded Priceline (PCLN) to Buy from Hold and upped his price target for the shares to $1,900 from $1,650. The company, given its recent growth execution and ability to "navigate competitive and macro headwinds," fits alongside other dominant internet franchises such as Amazon (AMZN), Google (GOOG, GOOGL), Facebook (FB) and Alibaba BABA), Devitt tells investors in a research note.

11/17/16

PIPR

11/17/16NO CHANGEPIPR

Piper sees Trump-related Internet selloff as 'rare opportunity'

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster says he would be "buying the fear" priced into Internet mega-caps. Concerns of President-Elect Trump's impact on tech companies are being largely extrapolated from sound bites that are unlikely to manifest during Trump's presidency, Munster tells investors in a research note. The selloff in "best-in-class" large cap internet stocks Apple (AAPL), Amazon.com (AMZN), Alphabet (GOOG), Facebook (FB) and Netflix (NFLX) presents a "rare opportunity," Munster writes. He believes Trump's threats towards Amazon are without merit and that net neutrality is unlikely to be reversed. He finds the valuations for each of the mega-caps "very attractive."

After Google (GOOG) confirmed in a blog post that it is "pausing" its Google Fiber rollout in most of its potential fiber cities while it "refines its approach," Stifel analyst Noelle Dilts lowered her forecast for Dycom's (DY) Google Fiber revenue and cut her F17 EPS estimate for Dycom by 2% and her 2018 estimate by 5%. However, Dilts maintains her view that Dycom's other major customers will continue to deploy fiber "aggressively" and reiterated her Buy rating on the stock while trimming her price target to $103 from $106.